I also thought the Union was being far too hasty in extending membership invite to Kraylon. These are machines they're dealing with! Wouldn't the Union want to know their backstory first? Who built them, why, and what happened to the builders? You know, the very same questions we were asking earlier in this thread. Heck wouldn't the Union want to verify that they were truly autonomous machines and not under control of some other race for possible nefarious or at least conflicting ambitions? But then again they let the Maclans in, so...…..

Part of me wonders if the Kaylon invasion may be some sort of test, perhaps seeing if the Planetary Union would still opt for peace when they get the upper hand (by Kaylon contrivance) during a faked invasion. Since even humans have the personal-disguise devices there's not much reason to keep most of the crew alive, so that give me pause. Of course, killing a bunch of crew members may actually put the PU off of accepting them… unless those deaths were faked too – which would be even more of a cop-out, IMO.

However, it could also be that this arc will delay any chance that the Kaylons would join and provide an overwhelming advantage against the Krill. If that is the case, I hope it doesn't become a lame deus ex machina later.

It makes perfect sense to me that Isaac would be built differently and less-capable than the units on Kaylon because there is always a risk of someone else reverse-engineering his technology or at least finding exploits for it. (Hopefully nothing too humiliating… like why Cylons don't have cooking shows anymore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joUZj4shx80 )

Now I just wonder if most of the Kaylons have some level of shared consciousness but, for similar concerns, kept Isaac in "individual mode." If many/most of them are individuals, I wonder how often they backup their consciousness. Maybe we'll discover that they've all backed themselves up in unsecured AWS buckets and we can just replace the genocide() routines with Morris Dancing or an affinity for puns.

Kelly and Ed's confab about the Kaylons stalling was annoying when they perpetuated the myth that a binary choice should be sooo easy for a computer brains. I bet when Ed was in college and got hungry during an all-nighter he'd have a hard time deciding between the last packet of Ramen or using up the rest of his pancake mix. (How hungry am I? Will it take too long and break my stride? What time do I have to get up? How soon before I go to sleep? How old is the pancake mix? …) In any case, most people who aren't the current President of the United States know that a treaty has huge implications and possible consequences.

Anyway, whatever happens next I know will be interesting and probably unexpected; definitely enjoyable.

Well. That was totally predictable. Enjoyable but predictable. I imagine the next few eps are going to be bottle shows as it looks they blew most of the season budget on this! Some thoughts, I'll try to keep spoilers minor:

*Why didn't Yaphet keep passing guns to more of the crew so they might have staged a full-scale attempt to re-take the ship?

*Disappointed to learn that Isaac wasn't named after Asimov. Maybe McFarland felt Newton would be know to a wider audience.

*Also disappointed to learn that the Kraylon were mistreated by their builders. I liked the idea that the AI's decided to exterminate all biological life out of a cold, emotionless logical reasoning that such life was inefficient, inferior, and irrelevant. Nothing personal guys! Giving the Kraylon a somewhat legitimate reason for their jihad robbed them of a bit of menace.

*Don't like the idea that of all the Kraylon only one, Isaac, was constructed after the revolution and of course he turns out to have "feelings". I liked my idea of the Kraylon sending out dozens of Ambassadors to all the races in this universe, including the Krill. It would have made for an interesting episode meeting the Krill version of Isaac.

*Not buying that Isaac would be forgiven so easily, even if he was instrumental in defeating the invasion. How will a Orville crewman who lost a husband or wife in the attack feel rounding a corridor and seeing Isaac serving aboard the ship? What will his rank/job be aboard the ship? I can't see anyone taking orders from him after this!

*Don't like the idea that of all the Kraylon only one, Isaac, was constructed after the revolution and of course he turns out to have "feelings". I liked my idea of the Kraylon sending out dozens of Ambassadors to all the races in this universe, including the Krill. It would have made for an interesting episode meeting the Krill version of Isaac.

I don't think they said he was the only one. Just that he was born after the overthrow. Maybe that's all the blue-eyed bots. Hmm....

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and Donald Trump is President of the United States. I'm not a doctor, I'm just someone who has done a ton of research into diet and nutrition.

I completely agree that this episode was waaaay too predictable, but ultimately enjoyable. My biggest disappointment is in seeing the complete lack of visual creativity of the show on full display here. All Union ships are virtually identical, just different sizes. Same with all Krill. Talk about boring, and what a way to make me not interested at all in whatever world-building is going on in this show.

I'm still enjoying the show, but creatively it never quite seems to fully commit to anything.

« Last Edit: March 05, 2019, 03:43:53 PM by superdave »

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I disavow anyone in the movement involved in any illegal,unethical, sexist, or racist behavior. However, I don't have the energy or time to investigate each person and case, and a lack of individual disavowals for each incident should not be construed as condoning such behavior.